In a way that few could have predicted a few short weeks ago, the fate of democracy in the United States (and in some ways Israel) has now been irrevocably tied to the fate of the Palestinians. For by insisting that two million Palestinians must vacate Gaza and never return (a war crime), US President Donald Trump has displayed his total contempt not only for the rule of law but also for the lives of other human beings. Seemingly incapable of empathy or any sincere moral judgment, he struts upon the American and global stage treating everyone—especially the most vulnerable—as mere pieces on a chess board.
If Trump gets away with committing a war crime in Gaza, there will be no stopping him anywhere. If he can compel others to bend to his will, Trump will project his authoritarian style with even greater force onto the entire American political arena. Because his quest for power at home and abroad is of one piece, it is essential that the international community draw a line in the sands of Gaza. In that sense, defending the elemental rights of Palestinians in Gaza (and the occupied West Bank) is defending America, not to mention the very imperfect world order that Trump despises.
To be sure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands the game that is now afoot. When he met with Trump at the White House on February 4, he seemed to have no inkling of the “gift” that Trump was about to hand him. Netanyahu probably could never have imagined that Trump would offer to complete the ethnic cleansing project that Israel’s messianic nationalist leaders have sought to advance by Israel’s leveling of Gaza.
Casting a Lifeline for Netanyahu
But it was not simply that Trump made Netanyahu an offer that he could not refuse. Trump handed the Israeli prime minister a political lifeline, thus tying together the political fate of the two leaders. Both are compromised: one is a convicted felon in the United States, the other has been on trial for corruption charges in Israel and is under international indictment for war crimes. Trump has no scruples about taking steps that could earn him the same opprobrium. His view of international law seems just one degree more contemptuous than his disdain for the rule of law in the United States. Trump and Netanyahu are practically twins.
That twinning is revealed by their efforts to do irrevocable harm to their democracies. In Israel, that project has unfolded against the background of a 58-year occupation of the West Bank, imposed by what international human rights groups have called an apartheid system, has eroded Israel’s own real, if flawed, democracy. The weekly protests against the Israeli government’s “judicial reforms”—mass demonstrations that ended with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacres—underscored both the hopes and the limits generated by the mobilization of Israel’s vast urban business and professional middle class. The hope stemmed from their quest to stop a process of democratic erosion that was well underway. The limits were displayed in a protest movement in which Palestinian citizens of Israel had no real voice because at the end of the day, they do not have full and equal citizenship rights.
And yet in a curious way, the past year has shown that the fate of Israeli democracy is now tied to ending the occupation and accepting self-determination for Palestinians. That lesson has been hard to learn with the agony of the Israeli hostages and the remarkable way that Netanyahu has used their suffering to sustain his power and to avoid the question of the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations. The continued anguish over the remaining hostages has postponed this moment of reckoning—as will certainly happen if the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapses. Yet many Israelis know that eventually they will have to grapple with the Palestinian-Israeli question if for no other reason than what made October 7 possible: a West Bank annexation project whose “success” depended—as Netanyahu knew—on ensuring that the political status quo in Hamas-run Gaza continued. In the aftermath of the Gaza conflagration, the fate of Israel’s democracy, with all its limitations, has now become tied to the fate of Palestinians.
Knowing this, Netanyahu has joined forces with Trump to build an Israel that will rule from the river to the sea, but in a land from which two million Palestinians will have been exiled, and another 3 million in the West Bank permanently denied political and civil rights. Still suffering from the shock of October 7 and the hostage crisis, those Israelis who reject this vision have yet to forge a strategy to effectively counter a leader who has no equal. The same can be said for Netanyahu’s ally in the White House, who is prevailing politically in part because of the reluctance of Trump’s Republican allies to stand up to him, and in part because Trump projects a charisma that none of his foes can match.
The Demographic Problem Cudgel
There is a deeper bond between Trump and Netanyahu, one that has its origins in what has been called the “demographic problem” in Israel. Although this problem has its own roots, history, and evolution, it is a problem that at some point has emerged in many democracies. It is rooted in the fundamental reality that democratic institutions can be a vehicle of inclusion or exclusion, that they can empower some groups to advance their vision of community while isolating others. Who wins and who loses can be a nearly existential matter, and this reality can make democracy itself a vehicle of conflict and fear.
In the United States, one worry that is fueling Trump’s project is the fear of some of his core supporters—especially white, evangelical Christian voters—that the demographic tide has shifted against them, thus the escalating quest to preempt this perceived threat by whatever means necessary. Trump’s war to dismantle federal government institutions—which could in effect soon include a pulverizing strike at federal justice and the rule of law itself—is the tip of this preemptive spear. The problem is not so much that the state is “too big” or “too wasteful”; the core issue is that Trump and his most loyal disciples see that state as a vehicle for a vision of America that they utterly scorn and reject. If American democracy must be dismantled in part or in whole, this is because their supreme goal is not efficiency or the question of inflation: it is to “make America great again.”
Netanyahu’s key domestic allies also have a vision of making Israel great again, one that is rooted in values that many Israelis may not share. Hence his efforts to impose a judicial project which was designed to contain the power of his secular opponents; thus, his support for Israeli leaders who wish to solve the “demographic problem” by occupation domination and now forced exodus.
In pursuing this project for a Greater Israel, Netanyahu has shown that he has no qualms about allying with an American president who is advancing his own demographic project via a multi-front war that seeks to rid the United States of potentially millions of undocumented migrants from the Global South. The Israeli prime minister also does not seem to be bothered by Trump’s putting in charge of his government-slashing project an individual, Elon Musk, who—apart from being the richest man in the world—has gleefully supported far-right parties in Europe that traffic in anti-Semitism. Having long ago written off the liberal American Jewish community, Netanyahu appears happy to call Elon Musk “a great friend of Israel.”
All these paths have led to Gaza. Trump’s dream of creating a “Riviera” there built on the wreckage and bodies of a people whom he hopes will soon be forgotten is a nightmare not just for Palestinians, but also for Israel, the United States, and the entire world order, such as it is. That is why the struggle for democracy and simple human decency is now being waged in Gaza. Defending the basic rights of Palestinians has become inseparable from defending liberal democracy in America, and a vision of democratic co-existence that gives Palestinians and Israelis equal rights and dignity.
The views expressed in this publication are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab Center Washington DC, its staff, or its Board of Directors.
Featured image credit: Avi Ohayon, GPO
